Radiocarbon dates from the Oxford AMS system: archaeometry datelist 35

This is the 35th list of AMS radiocarbon determinations measured at the Oxford Radiocarbon Accelerator Unit (ORAU). Amongst some of the sites included here are the latest series of determinations from the key sites of Abydos, El Mirón, Ban Chiang, Grotte de Pigeons (Taforalt), Alepotrypa and Oberkassel, as well as others dating to the Palaeolithic, Mesolithic and later periods. Comments on the significance of the results are provided by the submitters of the material

Feeding ancient cities in South Asia: Dating the adoption of rice, millet and tropical pulses in the Indus civilisation

© Antiquity Publications Ltd, 2016.The first direct absolute dates for the exploitation of several summer crops by Indus populations are presented here. These include rice, millets and three tropical pulse species at two settlements in the hinterland of the urban site of Rakhigarhi. The dates confirm the role of native summer domesticates in the rise of Indus cities. They demonstrate that, from their earliest phases, a range of crops and variable strategies, including multi-cropping, were used to feed different urban centres. This has important implications for understanding the development of the earliest cities in South Asia, particularly the organisation of labour and provisioning throughout the year.UK India Education and Research Initiative (Standard Award), British Academy (Stein Arnold Fund and International Mobility Scheme), Isaac Newton Trust, McDonald Institute for Archaeological Research, Natural Environment Research Council (NERC Radiocarbon Facility (Project IDs: NF/2009/2/7, NF/2013/1/6)), Arts and Humanities Research Council (Studentship), Trinity College (University of Cambridge), Division of Archaeology, Department of Archaeology and Anthropology (University of Cambridge

Early agriculture at the crossroads of China and Southeast Asia: Archaeobotanical evidence and radiocarbon dates from Baiyangcun, Yunnan

We report archaeobotanical results from systematic flotation at what is presently the earliest Neolithic site with hard evidence for crop cultivation in the Southwestern Chinese province of Yunnan, at the site of Baiyangcun. Direct AMS dates on rice and millet seeds, included together in a Bayesian model, suggests that sedentary agricultural occupation began ca. 2650 BCE, with cultivation of already domesticated rice (Oryza sativa), broomcorn millet (Panicum miliaceum), and foxtail millet (Setaria italica). Soybean (Glycine cf. max) was also present and presumably cultivated, although it still resembles its wild progenitor in terms of seed size. Additional possible cultivars include melon (Cucumis melo) and an unknown Vigna pulse, while wild gathered resources include fruits and nuts, including hawthorn (Crateagus) and aquatic foxnut (Euryale ferox). Weed flora suggests at least some rice was cultivated in wet (flooded or irrigated fields), while dryland weeds may derive from millet fields. This subsistence system persisted throughout the site's occupation, up to ca. 2050 BCE. These data provide secure evidence for the spread of Chinese Neolithic crops to Yunnan, and provide new evidence for reconstructing possible sources of cereal agriculture in mainland Southeast Asia

Feeding ancient cities in South Asia: Dating the adoption of rice, millet and tropical pulses in the Indus civilisation

© Antiquity Publications Ltd, 2016.The first direct absolute dates for the exploitation of several summer crops by Indus populations are presented here. These include rice, millets and three tropical pulse species at two settlements in the hinterland of the urban site of Rakhigarhi. The dates confirm the role of native summer domesticates in the rise of Indus cities. They demonstrate that, from their earliest phases, a range of crops and variable strategies, including multi-cropping, were used to feed different urban centres. This has important implications for understanding the development of the earliest cities in South Asia, particularly the organisation of labour and provisioning throughout the year

Dating the Bronze Age of Southeast Asia: why does it matter?

We have dated human bone, freshwater shell, charcoal and rice grains from key sites in mainland Southeast Asia in order to establish the chronological scaffolding for later prehistory (ca 2500 BC-AD 500). In a recent report on the metal remains from the site of Ban Chiang, however, this chronology has been challenged. Here, we respond to these claims and show that they are unfounded and misleading. We maintain the integrity of the Bayesian-modelled radiocarbon results that identify the arrival of the first rice and millet farmers in mainland Southeast Asia towards the end of the 3rd millennium BC, with the first evidence for the casting of bronze by about 1100 BC. Social change that followed the establishment of metallurgy was rapid and profound

Multi-academy Trusts: do they make a difference to pupil outcomes?

This report is published as a supplement to the main project research report, Hierarchy, Markets and Networks: Analysing the ‘self-improving school-led system’ agenda in England and the implications for schools. The main project report analyses how schools in England have interpreted and begun to respond to the government’s ‘self-improving school-led system’ (SISS) policy agenda, an overarching narrative for schools policy since 2010 that encompasses an ensemble of reforms including academies, multi-academy trusts (MATs) and teaching school alliances (TSAs). The statistical analysis of MAT impact on pupil attainment and progress set out in this supplementary report is the first published analysis to compare schools in MATs over a three-year period with standalone academies and maintained schools with similar characteristics and levels of prior pupil attainment. The analysis set out here uses 2013–15 attainment data and 2016 data on the composition of MATs. Our finding in this paper that there is no positive impact from MAT status overall is largely consistent with other recent studies (Hutchings and Francis, 2017; Andrews, 2019). Where this report provides significant new evidence is in terms of MAT size, as we show that pupils in small and mid-sized MATs tend to perform better, on average, than their peers in comparable maintained schools in both phases and, in the primary phase, than comparable standalone academies. Conversely, secondary school pupils in larger MATs (with 16+ schools) tend to do worse compared to those in both standalone academies and maintained schools. These findings suggest that the economic drive for MAT growth promoted in contemporary policy may well be in tension with an educational argument for smaller groupings of schools

Sucking while swimming: evaluating the effects of ram speed on suction generation in bluegill sunfish Lepomis macrochirus using digital particle image velocimetry

Orientador: Prof. Dr. Daniel Wunder HachemDissertação (mestrado) - Universidade Federal do Paraná, Setor de Ciências Jurídicas, Programa de Pós-Graduação em Direito. Defesa : Curitiba, 01/04/2019Inclui referências: p. 219-235Área de concentração: Direito do EstadoResumo: O dano moral coletivo vem sendo interpretado por uma doutrina e uma jurisprudência oscilantes em reconhecê-lo, além de concebê-lo de forma diversa, a depender do ramo do Direito que está a se tratar. Pretende-se examiná-lo enquanto um prejuízo resultante de ofensas aos direitos fundamentais coletivos cujo fim de proteção esteja conexo à dignidade da pessoa humana. E como a proteção, a promoção e a defesa da dignidade se dão por interesses jurídicos de naturezas diversas, busca-se fundamentar o dano moral coletivo de forma sistemática e uniformizada nos diversos ramos do Direito (como no Direito Trabalho, no Direito Ambiental e no Direito Administrativo) sob uma base comum: a responsabilidade civil. Para referida apreciação, a pesquisa faz uma análise crítica dos conceitos e definições acerca do dano extrapatrimonial, passando necessariamente pelos conceitos dos direitos de personalidade, da dignidade, dos direitos fundamentais e também dos direitos coletivos - indicando, independentemente do interesse lesionado, quais são os requisitos que configuram este dano (elemento material, formal, qualitativo e quantitativo). E, considerando que o Estado tem a obrigação espontânea ora de abstenção, ora de prestação fática ou normativa para a efetivação de certas pretensões jusfundamentais, inclusive quanto aos direitos sociais, e que há pretensões prontamente exigíveis que apresentam titularidade coletiva e que estão vinculadas à dignidade da pessoa humana, trata-se da possibilidade de o próprio Estado causar este dano moral coletivo quando tais obrigações não são devidamente cumpridas e geram prejuízo concreto (como nos casos de ineficiência ou não prestação de serviços públicos, ou nas criações de políticas públicas). Há, ainda, a questão sobre a possibilidade de se condenarem agentes ímprobos em reparar danos morais coletivos causados em face da lesão à moralidade administrativa - algo que vem sendo aceito pelos tribunais. Porém, entende-se que nestas hipóteses é preciso primeiramente diferenciar se está a tratar-se de dano moral coletivo suportado pela sociedade (interesses coletivos), ou se está a tratar-se de dano moral suportado pelo próprio Estado ou pelas pessoas jurídicas que o integram (interesse individual). Fundamenta-se pela possibilidade de o Estado, enquanto pessoa jurídica de direito público, ser titular de direitos fundamentais por apresentar personalidade jurídica e pela concepção contemporânea destes direitos como bidimensionais (dimensões objetiva e subjetiva) e multifuncionais. Salienta-se que há, entre estes direitos, alguns que, acaso lesionados, culminam em dano moral (melhor denominado de dano institucional), como a honra objetiva e a imagem. Assim, a presente pesquisa conclui que o ato de improbidade poderá gerar tanto um dano institucional - quando lesionados direitos de personalidade do ente público, comprometendo o fim institucional da pessoa jurídica - quanto um dano moral coletivo pela lesão a interesses transindividuais que comprometam a dignidade. Objetiva-se, por meio destas analises, elaborar um cenário do dano moral coletivo no Direito Administrativo: verifica-se quando o Estado causa referido dano e quando é vítima deste. Palavras-chave: dano moral coletivo; dignidade da pessoa humana; direitos fundamentais sociais; responsabilidade civil do Estado; dano institucional; improbidade administrativa.Abstract: Collective moral damage has been interpreted by both a doctrine and a jurisprudence which oscillate in recognizing it, in addition to conceiving it in different ways, depending on the selected field of Law. This dissertation aims to examine it as a damage resulting from offenses against collective fundamental rights whose purpose of protection is related to the dignity of the human person. And since protection, promotion and defense of dignity are given by legal interests of different natures, collective moral damages are justified in a systematic and uniform way in the various fields of Law (Labor Law, Environmental Law and Administrative Law) on a common basis: civil liability. For this assessment, this research makes a critical analysis of the concepts and definitions about the moral damage - necessarily going through the concepts of personality rights, dignity, fundamental rights, and collective rights, indicating, regardless of the injured interest, which are the requirements which are able to materialize it (material, formal, qualitative and quantitative). Considering that the State has the spontaneous obligation of abstention and of a factual or normative provision for the realization of certain fundamental claims, including social rights, and that there are claims which are readily demandable, have a collective nature are linked to the dignity of the human person, this research affirms that it is possible for the State itself to cause this collective moral damage when these obligations are not properly fulfilled and thus generate concrete damages (as in cases of inefficiency or non-provision of public services or in the creation of public policies). There is also the possibility of condemning corrupt agents in redressing collective moral damages caused by injuring administrative morality - something that has been accepted by the courts. However, in these cases it is necessary to differentiate whether it is a matter of collective moral damage borne by society (collective interests) or whether it is dealing with moral damages borne by the State itself or by its entities (individual interest). This dissertation is based on the possibility of the State, as a legal entity governed by public law, to be the holder of fundamental rights for having legal personality and for the contemporary conception of these rights as two-dimensional (objective and subjective) and multifunctional. It is emphasized that there are some of these rights that, when injured, culminate in moral damages (better known as institutional damages), such as objective honor and image. Thus, the present study concludes that the act of improbity can generate as much institutional damage - when it damages the personality rights of the public entity by compromising the institutional purpose of its legal entity -, as collective moral damage - by injuring transindividual interests which compromise dignity. Through these analyses, the research aims to understand the collective moral damage in Administrative Law when the State causes it as well as when the State is the victim of it. Keywords: collective moral damage; dignity of human person; fundamental social rights; civil liability of the State; institutional damage; administrative improbity